World GDP has grown by 3.11 percent in 2016 according to IMF World Economic Outlook. In 2017 world economy is continuing to slowly recover and projected to grow at modest 3.46 percent, before picking up to 3.65 percent in 2018. The recovery is driven mainly by developing economies which demonstrated the
growth of 4.13 percent in 2016 and are expected to grow by 4.49 percent in 2017. At the same time, growth in advanced economies is estimated to has remained
modest at 1.69 percent in 2016 and is projected to increase to 2.01 percent in 2017.
The United States, the largest economy in the world accounting for 24.9 percent of the global GDP, continued growing at the moderate pace in 2017 after the decrease
of output growth in the second quarter of 2016. Thus, U.S. real GDP increased at an annual rate of 2.1 percent in the first quarter of 2017 according to the estimate by
the International Monetary Fund. As a result, GDP growth is estimated to level off at 2.31 percent in 2017 with a modest uptick of 2.52 percent in 2018.
The world's second largest economy, China that accounts for 14.9 percent of the global GDP, is gradually slowing down as it continues the transition to a more
balanced growth. Thus, Chinese GDP expanded by 6.7 percent in 2016, broadly in line with the previous year. So, in 2017, GDP of China is expected to rise by 6.58
percent.
Japan, the world's third largest economy, saw a 1.26 percent expansion of GDP in the first quarter of 2017 after an increase of 1.62 percent in the fourth quarter of
- Overall 2017 growth is forecasted at 1.25 percent, but the momentum is weak: growth is projected to decrease to 0.59 percent in 2018.
GDP is the single most commonly referenced figure to cover the entirety of a national economy and the trajectory it is on in a single statistic. Measured annually,
quarterly, or monthly, trends in GDP for a single country or comparisons among peer countries are often called out in the popular press, sometimes with alarmist
tones that can make one wonder why or how this single data point has taken on such importance. This is particularly the case in a world increasingly focused on
measuring well-being, governance, and environmental and natural resource depletion, all of which are explicitly or implicitly excluded from standard GDP measures. In
an era of open data, GDP as a singular golden indicator could fade ever so slowly to make room for other unique measures that will only become increasingly easier
to develop and maintain as improvements are made in global data access.
Gross domestic product (GDP) at market prices is defined by the OECD as "the expenditure on final goods and services minus imports: final consumption
expenditures, gross capital formation, and exports less imports.". It can be measured both in U.S. dollars and Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs). While the first
approach suggests that the Unites States is the world's largest economy, according to the second approach, China is the largest one.
Take a look at other GDP-related dashboards:
GDP: GDP by country from the World Bank | GDP by country from IMF | World GDP ranking | World GDP
GDP per capita: GDP per capita by country from the World Bank | GDP per capita by country from IMF | World GDP per capita ranking.
